A very very belated wedding gift to one of my dearest friends. I don't think she checks my DA at all so hopefully this will stay a surprise until she gets it in the mail >_> Both she and her husband are swimmers and Disney's The Little Mermaid is her favorite movie.

I based my painting more on Hans Christian Andersen's version. No boob shells on my mermaids plz.

Gorgeous painting...I'm sure the couple love it very much.Oh, just to let you know, there are other artists besides you who prefer their mermaids topless...I happen to know 2 such artists here at dA: *RuuRuu-Chan and ~Pineapplelicious. Be sure to check out their galleries when you have the time.

This reminds me of the old saying: "Red sky in morning, sailor's take warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight."

Stunning composition and I love the colors! Even though the mermaid is in the foreground, the colors in the sunset grab your eye first, making her more of an afterthought instead of the focus of the picture. Nice effect! This would be at home in any fairy tale book.

You know, I had really neglected looking at the deviations in daGI for a while, but I just wanted to say what a nice, complete-feeling illustration this is. I like how you made the surface world so fiery and even otherworldly, as it might be seen by a mermaid. This would make an excelent book cover, with its vibrant color, fullness and energy.

aww thank you! I never thought about how the surface-world looked "fiery" but I see it now. It would make sense that a mermaid would be very used to a dark, blue and subdued color palette living so deep in the ocean. The upper world, especially during a sunset, would probably seem blindingly bright and colorful to them, as if the landscape were ablaze. Thank you for the lovely interpretation! I would love to paint a book cover one day! That would be awesome! ;_;

Oh man, the clouds and the waves... as always, those little excellent environmental details make the work. I'm sure your friend and her husband are in love with it, I'd be STOKED to get a wedding present like this.

So for the media list, when you say "in that order", am I correct in assuming you ink with the Microns and THEN watercolor? Admittedly, I haven't tried this, but how do you keep the ink from running? Is that not an issue with Microns?

It's not an issue at all! Microns don't bleed no matter how much I scrub that paintbrush over it. I highly recommend them if you want to ink before watercoloring. I've never actually tried inking after watercoloring.. I think I would find it very hard to do since my sketches are pretty light. And thank you! I'm happy you like it and I hope they'll like it too :3

I haven't! When I first heard about it, I wasn't really all that jazzed with the animation style (since I'm used to Miyazaki's older style) but I hear it's good. I heard it was inspired by the Little Mermaid but from the look of the trailers I was a little confused as to how much it related.

Well, it's manipulated to the Japanese style of thinking and to the environmental push Miyazaki always makes, but it is good and Cute! The animation suits it, too, in that it's a story for five year olds, who don't care as much for detail like adults do. But the liquid feel of the animation suits the nautical theme of the movie and it does share elements from the original story. Thankfully, she doesn't die at the end like in Christian Hans Anderson's version.

Ironically enough, I was discussing the differences between the "original" faerie tales and the disney renditions with my friends earlier. o:This is amazing. The water and the colours on everything look astounding. c: Good job.